TitleWalter Shirlaw
Artist
Frank Fowler
(American, 1852 - 1910)
Date1890
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30 1/8 × 25 in.
Framed: 36 × 31 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.
SignedSigned upper right: "Frank Fowler/1890"; on verso: "Walter Shirlaw by Frank Fowler"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, April 2, 1900
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number457-P
Label TextFowler's depiction of Shirlaw is characteristically informal-with his crossed arms, uncombed hair, and cigarette. Fowler strove to find poses that were typical and representative. He once wrote that it was the task of the portraitist "to make such use of the lines and movements, attitudes and gestures of the person he is representing, that they will appeal to those who are acquainted with this person as most characteristic of the particular individual he portrays."The catalogue of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition records the work as belonging to Shirlaw; however, it does not seem ever to have left Fowler's possession until it was presented to the Academy. At the time of the painting's formal acceptance, it was noted in the Academy minutes that the artist intended to replace it in the future with another work. Such statements commonly accompanied diploma presentations, and Fowler-like many of his colleagues-never made a substitution.
